Kunstler: Halloween Nation

What was with James Comey’s Friday letter to congress? It looks to me like the FBI Director had to go nuclear against his parent agency, the Department of Justice, and Attorney General Loretta Lynch, his boss, in particular. Why? Because the Attorney General refused to pursue the Clinton email case when more evidence turned up in the underage sexting case against Anthony Weiner, husband of Hillary’s chief of staff, Huma Abedin.

Over the weekend, the astounding news story broke that the FBI had not obtained a warrant to examine the emails on Weiner’s computer and other devices after three weeks of getting stonewalled by DOJ attorneys. What does it mean when the Director of the FBI can’t get a warrant in a New York minute? It must mean that the DOJ is at war with the FBI. Watergate is looking like thin gruel compared to this fantastic Bouillabaisse of a presidential campaign fiasco.

One way you can tell is that The New York Times is playing down the story Monday morning. Columnist Paul Krugman calls the Comey letter “cryptic.” Krugman’s personal cryptograph insinuates that Comey is trying to squash an investigation of “Russian meddling in American elections.” Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid chimed in with a statement that “it has become clear that you [Comey] possess explosive information about close ties and coordination between Donald Trump, his top advisers and the Russian government.” How’s that for stupid and ugly? It’s the Russian’s fault that Hillary finds herself in trouble again?

Earlier this week, lawyers at the DOJ attempted to quash a parallel investigation of the Clinton Foundation. They must be out of their minds to think that story will go away. Isn’t it about time that a House or Senate committee subpoenaed Bill Clinton to testify under oath about his June airport meeting with Loretta Lynch. He doesn’t enjoy any special immunity in this case.

Speaking of immunity, when will we learn what kind of immunity Huma Abedin may have been granted in previous cycles of the email investigation? Plenty of other Clinton campaign associates got immunity from prosecution earlier this year, rendering bales of evidence on their own laptops inadmissible in the email server case.

Things as yet unknown: Where is US Attorney (for the Southern District of New York) Preet Bharara in this case? He works for the DOJ, but he is known to be an independent operator, and he must be already involved at least in the underage sexting case against Weiner, meaning he’s had access to an awful lot of collateral evidence from Weiner’s laptop, and must have obtained some kind of warrants of his own.

What appears to be unraveling is the AG Loretta Lynch’s effort to protect Hillary Clinton and now, in this Alfred Hitchcock movie of a presidential election, she’s trying to make it look like James Comey is stabbing Hillary in the shower. (Film buffs note: in Hitchcock’s Psycho the character played by Janet Leigh made off with a bundle of money from her place of employment before Norman Bates worked his hoodoo on her at the motel.)

Trump, of course, is playing the escapade up in his usual idiotic way. It would be unfortunate if it ended up getting him elected — but how would it not be unfortunate for Hillary to wind up in the White House under a cloud of possible indictment? She will be doing Chinese fire drills with a special prosecutor the whole time she is in office, tempted at every moment to start a war with the Russians to divert attention from her legal problems.

Soon we will learn what kind of tensions are roiling between the FBI and the DOJ, and internally within each of these agencies. There are too many pissed off people there to prevent leakage, and probably plenty of email memoranda among the officials that would nicely lay out a trail of incrimination leading into the Attorney General’s office itself.

What a fine mess. And anybody who thinks that any of it might be resolved before November 8 will be disappointed. This story has so many legs, it looks like a Amazonian centipede compared to the lumbering cockroach that was Watergate. The awful proceedings will grind on and on while the US economy and its vampire squid matrix of financial rackets implode in 2017 along with the European Union and global trade. How do you like The Long Emergency now?

“The extent to which Hillary Clinton’s key advisers are now the focus of major FBI investigations is becoming clear. As The DailyMail.com reports, the Clintons’ long-term inner-circle – some of whom stretch back in service to the very first days of Bill’s White House – are being examined in at least five separate investigations. The scale of the FBI’s interest in some of America’s most powerful political fixers – one of them a sitting governor – underlines just how difficult it will be for Clinton to shake off the taint of scandal if she enters the White House. There are, in fact, not one but five separate FBI investigations which involve members of Clinton’s inner circle or their closest relatives – the people at the center of what has come to be known as Clintonworld.”

Apneaman on Tue, 1st Nov 2016 6:38 pm

Entertaining for sure Davy. I am doubly amused by the fact that the regular target audience is so fucking dumb that they need a marginally literate guy to read the words off the page for them. Does he also have a tutorial video to help them tie their shoes?

“I am not going to document today their corruption, malfeasance and negligence as I have repeatedly done in the past. It is enough to know and remember that our ruling elites have only themselves to blame for creating the situation they fear so much.”

Davy, I’m not totally unsympathetic to the conservative folks pain. They have been screwed also, but like most they cannot see past anything more than their tribal politics (medieval). Deniers and minimizers of AGW, mass extinction, ocean acidification, overpopulation, resource depletion, etc. Yeah these people are going to fix things up. They actually believe that it is possible to “make America great again” and I know you know that’s just not possible since by great they mean good paying jobs and more consumer goodies. At this point the best anyone could hope for is “make America not spiral into violent chaos again” and IMO that would be an accomplishment given all the hate floating around. I despise Hillary too and Trump, but they are just puppets. The only way to get free is if “someone(s)” took down the banking and corporate people and that would require great risk and sacrifice and major changes. It would get violent since elites always resort to that when threatened. If I’m one of the real string pullers and shot callers, I am perfectly happy with the sheeple burning up all their energy hating the other tribe and putting full focus on the phony leaders Trump-Hillary and intentionally overblown culture war bullshit. It’s systemic (you have written about that many times) and within a decade or so the environmental predicaments that are being ignored (conservatives) or just given lip service (liberals) will come to dominate our lives. Trying to save a system that cannot be saved only puts more disaster in the recipe. Trillions and trillions of words spoken about these 2 subhumans over the last year and millions of man hours – wasted on lowest common denominator social-tribal monkey chatter. 99% gossip. Meanwhile the Arctic is melting down at a rate that only 10 years ago was not predicted to happen until 2050-2100. Priorities.

Davy on Wed, 2nd Nov 2016 2:59 pm

Yea Ape, we can always pass the pipe over AGW. I am looking forward to a possible Trump victory not becuase he will make America great again but becuase his form of destructive change fits best my idea of the best of destructive change. I see anti-globalism tendencies and detente with Russia possible. I see anti-NATO and lowered interventionism. I am anti-immigration not becuase I am a racist but becuase the sustainable US carrying capacity minus abundant fossil fuels is closer to 100MIL. We need to be exporting people. Trump will try to stem immigration.

Trump may get nothing done or should I say likely get nothing done but he will give the corrupt elites and the status quo indigestion. Hillary will cement the status quo even if she gets removed post election. There is no one on the radar screen remotely able to stir shit up like Trump. I don’t like the guy but I want to see the criminal activity wounded if not stopped. He may feel a mandate to drain the swamp and most of the establishment shit on him so why not if you are a Trump.

This is shaping up to be some kind of civil war within the halls of power. Hillary and company have been coopting DC for 30 years now. It seems it was heros on the internet and elsewhere that thwarted her evilness. I am not saying that in a religious sense but in a human ethics sense of what is right and proper. You know truth with consequences. I imagine there are just too many criminals with too much to lose for them to go quietly so I expect a volatile period in and around the election. The sheeples are getting agitated already and ready for a fight to add fuel to the fire. The elites have misstepped and now have trouble on their hands.

Boat on Wed, 2nd Nov 2016 6:02 pm

So when was America not great, then became great and then lost it’s greatness. Lol Can you adding who we were killing during these time periods.

Apneaman on Wed, 2nd Nov 2016 7:09 pm

Boat are you hammered? U no make sense.

Davy I kinda want to see Trump win. I more or less agree with your thinking. There are literally tens of millions of not working, working class Americans who need help/opportunity. I don’t know if Trump can do any of that shit he spouts, but I know Hillary & Co won’t.

Boat on Wed, 2nd Nov 2016 7:43 pm

ape,

Go work out and get some blood flowing. Your dumb ass is showing.

Have you listened to him or read his proposals?

Apneaman on Wed, 2nd Nov 2016 9:46 pm

Boat, so what? How many times do any politicians proposals to “help” working people come true? Obama care? You know how that works? It was written by a bunch pharmaceutical and insurance industry corporate lawyers, they hand it over to Obama’s “people” former corporate lawyers, there are a few changes back and forth, they give Obama an executive summery/ presentation tell him it’s awesome and he signs the fucking thing. Many deals work like that. How much you wanna bet that come January we will start hearing all the corporate hires by Obama’s people? How’s that Obama care working out by the way? Boat have you ever heard a politician who did not promise JOBS and no new taxes and all the rest of that bullshit their speech writers trained them up to say? I don’t think you get just how deep the rot is. Go read that piece by the wizard Greer they just posted. He gets much of it. Besides Hillary has Botox in her face and she looks like a water retaining sea cow. I hear that Botox can leak into you brain and make ya crazy (I made that last part up). With Hillary you know what you will get – more racketeering. With Trump, the only thing you can be sure of is that you are not going to get Hillary.

Boat on Thu, 3rd Nov 2016 12:16 am

Apeman,

I am on Obamacare for one reason. Insurance is higher through a typical insurance company. Real life shyt. I can’t think of one Trump proposal that would lower costs. I have watched 3 debates and 4-5 speeches. You remember one? Trump is an attack dog, that will win Rep’s but not me.

makati1 on Thu, 3rd Nov 2016 1:55 am

Trump is the “lessor of two evils”. Killary IS evil incarnate. This is the first time in my 72 years that a candidate for Prez was also in line to be impeached before the sweat drys on the swearing-in bible. LMAO